How To Get Over the Fear of Charging What You’re Worth
Are you charging what you’re worth? I mean what you’re really worth? Chances are, you’re not.
In this guide, I’ll show you how you can get over that ever-present fear of charging what you’re worth, giving you the confidence that you need to start charging exactly what you should be.
All too often, I see women entrepreneurs who are extremely talented, skilled beyond words, and with a valuable service to offer the world. But sadly, they often lack confidence in their own abilities and worth and as a result, are reluctant to position themselves as high-end. This is tragic, as often, it’s this very mindset that not only limits you from charging more, but also keeps you from recognizing just how much value you have to offer. And trust me: It’s almost certainly way, WAY more than you think!
“But how can I do this?” You’re probably wondering. “How can I raise my rates, confidently sell my services, and you know, do it in a way that won’t send prospective clients running for the hills, clutching their pocketbooks?”
Step one: get over the fear of charging more. Fear is one of those things that will always, always, always hold you back. And it drives many of our decisions and actions. Recognizing this fear and working to replace it with confidence in the solutions that you’re able to offer your clients will put you on track toward developing a better pricing strategy. One that’s more commensurate with the value that you’re able to bring to the table.
Sound good?
In this guide, I’ll show you how you can get over that ever-present fear of charging what you’re worth, giving you the confidence that you need to start charging exactly what you should be.
1 - Choose One: Price or Talent
You can compete on price or talent. But only one. Choose wisely. And I don’t recommend going up against the person who’s doing it cheaper.
Competing on price never ends well. It’s only going to be a race to the bottom, where nobody wins.
Amazon may be set up to operate this way, but that doesn’t mean that you should. As a service-based business with an expert at the helm (you!), you should be focusing on providing value, not positioning yourself like a commodity. Or even worse, an expense: which is exactly what charging by the hour does.
Instead, you’re going to want to position yourself as the best option for your target audience.
Now, it’s important to note that if you wanted to be respected for the value that you add, then you have to maintain integrity with what you’re charging. This will give you confidence to boldly charge what you’re worth, and to competently field any questions from prospective clients. So I wouldn’t recommend just tossing out prices and hoping that something sticks. Instead, start by taking a good, solid look at your services, and calculating what they’re worth, being careful to factor in your experience, your areas of expertise, proof in the form of testimonials, reviews, and a social following –all of that jazz –PLUS, and this is most crucial: how much value you bring to the table.
Obviously, for someone who’s been in business for a while, this could mean charging a great deal more than someone who’s just arrived on the scene –but that depends. If you’re new, but have a unique skill set that’s tremendously valuable, or is something that your clients value, then no excuses. You can start pricing yourself accordingly right from the start. Don’t sell yourself short just to gain exposure.
2- Recognize Your Value
“If I do a job in 30 minutes it’s because I spent 10 years learning how to do that in 30 minutes. You owe me for the years, not the minutes.” –Davy Greenberg
I love this quote. And it’s a great reminder of how we should be pricing our services.
It highlights the value of experience. Every industry has an invisible learning curve, skills, and knowledge that you accrue over time.
One of my clients, Andrea Moxham of Horseshoe Co., comes to mind. Even though she’s an expert in her field with over six years of HubSpot expertise, and provides real value to her clients, she still has prospects pushing back on her proposals, trying to get a better deal. If you know anything about HubSpot, you’ll know that it’s a BEAST of a platform and there is a reason why experts like her charge what they do. However, because she makes the work seem so easy, she runs into opposition. And that’s because they aren’t factoring in her six years of experience.
It’s so easy for us to fall into the trap of charging for our time spent on tasks, without realizing that actually, our experience counts for a great deal as well, and is often the reason we can do things so efficiently in the first place. If you make it look easy, then you can expect some pushback –but don’t give in. If you’re finding this is the case for you, then you may want to think about raising your rates, and positioning yourself as more high-end. The type of clients that you want to market to will be the ones who value their time more than their money and will be more than willing to pay you for the value that you bring. Because of this, they won’t be nearly as interested in trying to barter you down. They’ll just be happy to pay you, knowing that in exchange, they’ll be gaining something valuable, or that the work will be done to a high standard.
Your experience and knowledge are what people are paying for, so don’t downplay them. You have your own set of skills and value that you can add, you don’t need to limit yourself to what you believe others might be willing to pay. Create a plan to charge in a way that’s in accordance with your value, and give yourself the facts so you have the confidence to do so.
To learn more about positioning yourself as an expert and charging what you’re worth, be sure to check out this insightful podcast episode with Merel Kriegsman, CEO and Founder of Merel Kriegsman Media. In this episode, she shares how to understand your worth –and communicate that to clients. Know your value from the get-go and price accordingly.
3 - Stop Negotiating
Like I touched on above, don’t barter too heavily with would-be customers.
Sure, giving discounts from time to time may be fine in certain situations. For instance, if the recipient will bring long-term value to your business. But take care. Discounting too heavily will mean that you’re underselling yourself, and soon your prospects will start to view you as a budget-friendly option, only knocking when they want a cheap job done –for less. When this happens, watch out. A strange psychological shift starts to take place: these prospects will often start expecting more, for less.
Instead of implementing discount-heavy strategies, look for genuine, value-based, economically sustainable ways to grow your business. Once again, focus on demonstrating to prospects the value that you bring to the table, the difference you can make to their bottom line. Work to position yourself in a way that commands respect. In return, you’ll have a much easier time charging what you’re worth.
4 - Realize That Charging What You’re Worth Is Nuanced
There is a pricing culture that exists today, and it’s important to be aware of it. This culture has given rise to the belief that if you feel like you’re worth millions, then you should charge millions. And anyone else, who dares to charge less –even if they’re first starting out, should be named and shamed.
But that’s only half of the picture. Yes, you need to have self-confidence and the ability to charge what you’re worth. But how do you get to that point? The confidence to charge what you’re worth must first and foremost be rooted in a firm knowledge of how much you’re worth and why. Otherwise, you won’t be fooling anyone when you charge $10,000 for a consulting session, and the clients start coming back to you with negative feedback.
It takes experience and both successes and failures to prove your track record. If you’ve been at it for a while and have a list of satisfied clients and success stories to back you up, then yes –by all means you should be charging a lot more. But for those folks who are just starting out, testing out business ideas, or who may feel more comfortable easing into a higher-pricing structure, they should have the freedom to do so without the “pricing culture vultures” tearing into them for charging too little. At the end of the day, you aren’t what you think you’re worth; you’re worth what you know you’re worth. Big difference. Know your worth. Know the value that you bring. Then own it.
5 - Root Out Toxic Beliefs About Money
Money, and our relationship with it, directly impacts our ability to acquire it. So a negative view means you’ll often make decisions that will drive money-generating opportunities away. It’s crazy how this works.
We all have beliefs around money that hold us back. These beliefs are often subconscious and rooted in things that we learned when we were younger.
When I was growing up, I was told that you shouldn’t discuss money. You may have had a similar experience. Because of this, I was hardly educated on believing in myself, let alone believing that making money wasn’t the devil’s job. It took time to reach the realization that yes, actually, money is good and earning it can be a great thing.
Other common money myths include:
Money = Evil
Having too much money makes you greedy
Earning money is too risky
Money’s scarce
I don’t have time to earn more money
Self-limiting beliefs though, will only hold you back. It’s important to banish any money myths that you may have, take the time to really understand how money works, and stop feeling guilty for wanting to earn it. Then, work to develop a winning entrepreneur mindset, something that’s essential for long-term success.
6 - Pursue Pleasure
As humans, we are more motivated to avoid pain than to increase pleasure. But really, we should be pursuing those things that will bring us happiness, rather than just ping-ponging through life trying to avoid potentially painful situations.
Keep this in mind when creating your pricing structure. Does an increase mean you are moving towards pleasure? Or does charging less and increasing volume mean you are simply trying to avoid pain?
This approach will put you directly in the driver’s seat, and instead of continually operating in defense mode, you’ll be able to take a proactive approach: getting better results, and more out of life. You’ll be more fulfilled, and your business will benefit as well.
It’s also crucial that you recognize that your perspective on your value is deeply rooted in your self-doubt. So it’s important to banish those doubts by recognizing your skills and talents, and then stepping up to the plate and using that knowledge and confidence to price your services accordingly.
Let’s learn to discover our worth, and get clear on the value that we bring to others. Then and only then can we start moving toward a place where we realize, suddenly and unashamedly, that we’re not afraid to charge what we’re worth.
Are YOU charging what you’re worth? What do you struggle with when pricing your services?
